Bernie Sanders is doing very well in New Hampshire. The latest poll has him down by only 8 points, plus or minus 5.2, meaning the spread is really 3 – 13 points. The RCP average has him down by 15, which is not bad this far out. If he keeps pulling in the kind of numbers he’s been getting both for speeches and dollars, he could really win the New Hampshire primary, if it wasn’t for a little problem with their candidacy statement.
After the jump, the legalese, some commentary and a poll.
Currently, the State of New Hampshire requires that primary candidates be a member of the party for which the primary is held. To wit:
The Sanders campaign does not consider this to be an insurmountable obstacle. Vermont, where he is registered, does not allow party affiliations, and in the past other candidates (including both Bushes from Texas, and Gore from Tennessee) came from states that did not register voters by party affiliation. The Sanders campaign believes that because he was on the Democratic Senate primary ballot in Vermont, both in 2006 and 2012, that will prove party affiliation, even though he declined both nominations to run as an independent. In addition, he is recognized as a legitimate candidate by both the state and national Democratic parties. Further, he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate.
However, Charlie Bass, Ex-Rep from NH, sees it as a problem, and I wouldn’t put it past the Republicans to make an issue of it, even though they’re currently hosting a 2016 clown van so large they can’t fit all their people on a single debate stage. If there is a challenge, it will be heard by the Ballot Law Commission, which is currently made up of two Democrats and three Republicans. On the bright side, Orly Taitz did poorly with them in the past.
So what do you think?
Health Canada, which accredits cannabis producers, is
positively looking into the problem,” spokesman Andre
Gagnon said in an email.
Bernie is driving our clown car
And I find the polling numbers a bit amusing. his numbers outside his “favorite son” state have improved, but they have come at the expense of Warren and Bidden, not Hillary. If he wins NH it will be and should be completely discounted, and by then Hillary will have eaten him alive in the Iowa caucuses. and she will be way ahead in the SC and the overall national numbers. Bernie is the current tool of the far left, to try and push the winning candidate as far to the fringe as possible. this is a really stupid idea. it is the best way to help the opposition win in November. the only thing that would be better for the GOP would be if Bernie did win, and they manage to empty the clown car and get a Jeb or Christie back on a more moderate message. Don’t get me wrong, I am a further lefty than almost anyone who has ever been associated with this forum, but I believe in changing America and the world by changing the mindset of our neighbors and friends, not by pushing the leadership of our party so far to the left that an unprepared electorate choose the Tea PArty because it seems less extreme. It is an “in house” version of the Green Party.
For future reference, you’ve misinterpreted the survey’s margin of error. A 5% margin of error means Clinton could be 38% to 48%, Sanders could be 30% to 40%, within the 95% confidence interval. That overlap in possible support means it’s a statistical tie.